Stourhead House Lillington Gardens Estate With Attached Public Library And Walls And Steps

Stourhead House, Lillington Gardens Estate with Attached Public Library and Walls and Steps

A block of 108 flats, seven shop units (some now combined as double units) and a public library, built 1969–74 by Darbourne and Darke for the City of Westminster. The building is constructed of red brick walls with concrete slab floors, exposed as painted bands, and a roof clad in felt, painted white, with distinctive mansards of artificial slate and metal edges.

The complex uses a scissor plan arrangement, with maisonettes positioned to the front and back behind walled gardens. Those to the rear are set lower and include an extra kitchen and dining room, while living rooms in both ranges face the street; bedrooms face the garden elevations. Above these sit one-bedroom and studio flats arranged around a rooftop "street in the sky" (numbered 67–108), some reached via external stairs, with the larger units on two levels to the garden front and having internal stairs. Stourhead rises to a maximum of eight storeys. Brick stairs lead to an upper level containing units 86–103. Maisonettes numbered 63–66 are set behind walled enclosures on the first floor over the library, with units 104–108 positioned above them.

The building features rear service windows to staircases with narrow louvred windows. Original black timber doors have glazed panels; aluminium sash windows sit in thick black timber surrounds. Seven shops, some now combined, were integral to the original competition design. The public library occupies the south end of the block on two main public levels, with black timber doors and windows. The interior survives remarkably completely, with sections for children and young adults on a gallery featuring a black timber slat balustrade that continues as a handrail to the staircase. Original black timber bookshelves line both levels. A door of timber and glass with a full-height vertical handle provides access to the children's library.

John Darbourne won a competition for the rebuilding of Lillington Street in 1961 and formed a partnership with Geoffrey Darke to develop the scheme. The design took its cue from the striking Victorian red brick Church of St James the Less (grade I listed), which the estate surrounds. The earlier phases of Lillington pioneered low-rise high-density solutions for public housing. Darbourne rejected the symmetrical, free-standing block in favour of a more contextual approach in which each resident would have a distinctive element with which to associate themselves. The development was successful and award-winning from the outset and was widely imitated.

For the third phase, Lillington 3, the architects revised their original designs to introduce more maisonettes for families with their own front door. Nearly half the units now have a front door and small garden at ground level, with more private than public open space. Stylistically, the slate mansards were first introduced here, later becoming a feature of their Marquess Estate at Islington. The Architects' Journal recognised in October 1969 that the revised plans accommodated considerable family housing at densities of 255 persons per acre. The Times in September 1972 described it as "an elegant and exciting environment for young and old." Lillington 3 spawned even more imitations than the original scheme. Darbourne and Darke pioneered a new approach to public housing, introducing what has been described as "middle-class" values to the council house sector. Lillington 3 won an RIBA Commendation in 1973.